Eagles Fall to the Buffalo Herd in Sojka

First of all, thanks to everyone who joined us in the liveblog last night. It was a very lively discussion and great to "see" so many of you in there to talk about the pretty crazy game that we were able to listen to. Here's the recap, and here's the box score. I have some thoughts from this game, so please join me as I tip-toe through the tulips below.

- You've probably noticed I don't do the GOOD, BAD, and UGLY anymore, but in this case, I think it's warranted to give Vlad a BAD for last night. In your biggest games, you need your biggest players to step up. In two games against Bucknell this year, Vlad shot 5-20 and 1-4 from the 3 point line. He's averaging 8 points a game (12 points below his average). He is averaging 6.5 rebounds in these games, but it's not enough. You need Vlad to step up. Haywood points out that it looks like Vlad was sick last night, or at least something was off. If that's the case, sorry to put the BAD on you, Vlad. We'll hope to see you bounce back against Colgate.

- Troy has really stepped it up the past few games. In his past 3, he's averaging 14 points on 48% from the field. He was the only one who kept the Eagles afloat in the dismal first 10 minutes of yesterday's first half. The one gripe I had about him last night was that he doesn't ever pull up for jumpers in the lane. He has some trouble finishing at the hoop, so why not shake off the defender with a sudden stop and pull-up? Keep up the good work, Troy.

- Every once in a while Danny Munoz has one of these tremendous outputs that you wish, hope, and pray would be what we'd see on a consistent basis. Munoz exploded for 11 points and 4 assists last night. The 11 points came on 3-4 from long range (a season high) and his point total tied a season high too. Great performance, Danny really stepped up when a lot of the other roleplayers didn't.

- Mike Muscala is a force. That is all.

- Lump had a decent, but not great, game last night against the best big man in the Patriot League. 11 points (1 pt below average) and 5 rebounds (almost a season low), weren't a tremendous output. There were times when Lump got the better of Muscala, with a little up and under trickery that completely faked out the big buffalo. We needed Lump to have the game of his life last night, and we didn't get it, but we certainly can't lay this loss at his feet given the other subpar performances we got.

- What an unbelievable comeback by the Eagles for this game to even be a bitter loss. Down 14 points early, this looked like it was going to be a repeat of the Bender Blowout earlier this season. But the Eagles bite and clawed their way back to get a lead late in the second half. Clutch three point shooting really helped; without those buckets from Munoz and Charles (help comes from unexpected places!) we'd be tearing our eyeballs out at a double-digit loss today. Down the stretch we just couldn't hit a clutch basket. We missed a few chances to re-take the lead. Muscala came up huge at the end for Bucknell and we didn't have anyone step up in the last few minutes. We came together enough to get it close, but just couldn't get over the hump.

I fully, FULLY expect us to bounce back (again) against Colgate this Saturday. One game at a time from here on out, it's completely improbable that we will get the #1 seed now, but we can work on keeping the #2 seed firmly in our grasp.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

The Fans Speak: Point Guard Palooza

Often the Poll of the Week results get rolled into some post or another, but this week I think the voice of the fans deserves its own space. We asked, "Who should start at point guard?", and the results are close indeed:

Steve Luptak: 13 (25%)
Daniel Munoz: 7 (13%)
Nick Hendra: 16 (31%)
Blake Jolivette: 15 (29%)
Total Votes: 51 (100%)

Hendra leads with 16 votes, which on one hand is surprising as he is the least like a true point guard of the four. On the other hand, he is definitely the biggest offensive spark and leads the team in assists, although is ball-handling skills and knowledge of the offense from the one spot might not be as great as the others.

Neck-and-neck with Hendra is Blake Jolivette, who has only seen about a minute and a half of play time this season. We've speculated for months as to why he's been riding the pine for about a year now, as last season he shared the starting spot with Danny Munoz up until late December. A fantastic 3-point conversion at West Virginia gave fuel to the "Let Blake Play" camp, although others are quick to point out that it was in the final seconds versus WVU's scrub team. Still, with a dearth of dribble penetration from our other guards, it still holds merit.

Following closely behind Jolivette is Steve Luptak, the first candidate to actually see significant play time at the point guard position this season. He's probably the best defender of the bunch, but the weakest on offense. His ball handling skills are not as tight as Danny's, but his bigger frame helps him hold onto the ball better in tight situations, and his experience as a Senior and accompanying leadership skills get him the starting spot as of now.

Last, surprisingly, is Danny Munoz. I think Steve and Danny coming in 3rd and 4th place respectively speaks to fans' collective disappointment with how weak this position is for us right now, but I didn't expect Danny to fall behind the rest of the pack quite so much. As stated, Danny probably has the best ball-handling skills of the bunch, can hit the occasional three, and against softer teams can make it to the basket every now and then. While I think he should be higher, that's just my opinion, and if my opinion was the only one that mattered then why take a poll?

Last, I do want to mention option #5, Wayne Simon II. As he's new to the team and stands little chance of starting this season, he wasn't included in the poll. This being said, in the years to come we will likely see a lot of him. He's tiny, but quick, and from what I've seen can drive to the basket and pick much larger defenders like it's nobody's business. He has the opportunity to get a bit bigger this summer too, and the cleanup minutes he's been seeing so far have hopefully been helping him adjust to the college game. When we lose Nick and Steve to graduation after this season, we'll likely look to Wayne to step up and contribute much more, along with fellow freshman Tony Wroblicky. This team has a bright future, and Wayne will definitely be a part of it.

Thanks to everyone who voted. AUHoops only gets better when there's more voices being heard. If you have further thoughts on the point guards (and I'm sure you do), share them with us in the comments, then vote in this week's poll, "Which Patriot League opponent will be our greatest contender for the title?" We'll be back shortly with a preview of tomorrow's UMBC game.

Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES!
Josh

And They Would've Won, Too, If It Weren't for You Meddlesome Eagles! The GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Two games for our Eagles, and two wins! According to AUEagles.com, this is only the second time under Jeff Jones that the Eagles have started 2-0. Pretty surprising given the level of success we've enjoyed overall during the JJ era. In any event, we played an Albany team that was more or less overmatched the entire game. We jumped out to an 8-2 lead and never looked back. Were there areas we definitely could've improved upon? Yes. In some ways, the margin almost could've been higher. This is an Albany team that was missing its best player and was in foul trouble all game. When you read the rest of this, it might actually read like a GOOD, BAD, and UGLY from a loss. There weren't a lot of standout individual performances. This is a night where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Still, a win is a win. Let's get into it.

THE GOOD

The point guard position - Danny and Steve combined tonight to go 4-8 overall and 2-5 from behind the arc for 10 points. They also had 6 assists and no turnovers. For a position that was supposed to be the weakest part of AU's game, these two have done a pretty good job platooning at the point. Danny's improvement from behind the arc is noticeable and could be a big factor that allows us to spread out the defense even further as the season goes on.

Mike Bersch - Only 11 minutes, but 5 points and a rebound on 2-4 shooting, including his first of what I suspect will be many this season from behind the arc. Welcome back to the good column, Mike.

Stephen Lumpkins - It seemed like Lump has having some trouble finishing his shots during the game, but the 5-10 shooting line wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Add to that his 8 boards and 2 blocks and the fact that he shut down Albany's John Puk (no shots, one rebound, five fouls) all night and he definitely deserves to be here.

Assist to turnover ratio - Any time AU has a 2.0 assist/turnover ratio it deserves to be in the good column. All due praise to the ball handling tonight.

THE BAD

Shot selection - Like I said above, this was a game where we were in the driver's seat the entire way. So let's look at the shot selection: 21-48 overall, but 7-23 from long range. Just under half of our shots were three point attempts. That's unbelievable and inexcusable against an opponent like Albany. Why shoot like you're down 15 when you were up 15 for most of the game? There's no reason to take that many shots from long range. I think it's an indictment of our ability to get the ball inside for us to take that many shots from outside. Not only was the number of 3's we took too high, but the number we made was way too low. Vlad: 1-7, Troy: 2-6. Come on, guys. There will be games you're going to need to rely on the 3. This wasn't one of them.

Free throws - 8-15 tonight. Better improve on that quickly because it will really hurt us later in the season if we're shooting ~50% from the line. Credit to Simon McCormack who hit all 6 of his tonight.

Second half slump - Yes we didn't play with a ton of urgency because we had a big lead, but we only outscored Albany 23-21 in the second half. We also shot 14% worse. Against a team that had 12 fouls in the first half, we only forced one guy to foul out. Felt like we were going through the motions a little bit because of our lead.

Rebounding - Outrebounded 38-31.

THE UGLY

The announcing for this game - The two guys who announced this game for the radio feed should stick with the play-by-play at the duck pond. Couldn't pronounce names for their lives (Vlad Moldano, Mike Hendra, anyone?) With 3 minutes left, and Albany down 14, they were still talking about how they could come back and win it. Just a very poor broadcasting crew. Was tough to listen to. Not like our very own Dan Laing.

Maryland Eastern Shore's loss to Columbia - Columbia hung ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT points on UMES tonight and had 6 players score in double digits. As ugly as that is, I sure hope Wednesday's matchup against UMES will get even uglier for the Hawks. The sweet, sweet revenge tour of '10-'11 continues. We've avenged our losses to Randolph-Macon, St. Francis (PA), and Albany. UMES is next.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

When Your Team Plays Like a Robert Louis Stevenson Novel, There's GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

1-0 folks. As long as we're being honest, that's the only number in this entire post that matters. One in the win column. Revenge earned after last year's second half collapse at St. Francis. Actually, come to think of it, this year was kind of the reverse of last year's. We went into halftime trailing by 9 and then outscored St. Francis 35-16 in the second half to get the 10 point victory. It wasn't often pretty, and at times, it was downright ugly. Here are the resources you'll want: box score and recap. Let's get into it...with the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY

THE GOOD

Vlad "the Impaler" Moldoveanu - 24 points to lead all scorers, including draining the three (off a sweet Nick Hendra pass) that finally tied the game up with 12:07 left in the second half. Not the prettiest line Vlad will ever put up, and Jeff Jones noted that "this was not his best game," but he still got it done. 7-15, 2-5, and 8-10 with 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, and an assist, unfortunately he also had 4 turnovers.

Troy Brewer - We need to get some kind of nickname for Troy, and I'm going to recommend Peter Parker or Spiderman. Seriously, the guy's vertical leap is out of control. I think he could hurdle Lumpkins if he wanted to. Last night he went up for a block, and I swear his head was even with the rim when he did so. Unbelievably athletic, and I think he's going to give AU the ability to open up some fast breaks. He's got a good instinct for it and is already halfway down the court looking for an outlet pass when there's even a hint of the Eagles forcing a turnover. Troy put in 36 minutes, and 12 points on 5-11 shooting. He was 0-3 from behind the arc, unfortunately. AU could've used some long range shots in the first half. He also chipped in 5 boards.

Nick Hendra - In the post-game conference, Jeff Jones said that Nick has already played with more sustained intensity and focus this season than he has at any point in his career with AU. That's a hell of a statement, and it's good that we're seeing Hendra take up this intensity on the court. He's got a ton of experience as a senior, and he has a ton of talent as well. Last night, though, you could see the unbelievable intensity he was playing with. He seems like some kind of field general out there now. Pointing to his guys and making sure they're in the right places, distributing the ball, hustling for loose balls. He had 5 points last night, but they were huge. He scored the first five non-free throw points of the second half, which, with Lumps' two free throws, sparked the 7-0 run that brought the Eagles back into the game.

Danny Munoz - Hell of a game last night from Danny. Coach Jones said this might have been his best game as an Eagle thus far and that he was looking for his shot more than in any game last year. 10 points, including two 3's. Danny seems to have made the long ball a more regular part of his game than last year. He seems to be more comfortable shooting from behind the arc, or at least has been these first two games. Danny also has done a good job driving into the lane and getting some good dribble penetration. No assists in 24 minutes though isn't such a good stat from our point guard though; hopefully that will improve.

The Blue Crew - An attendance of over 2,800 last night, on a Friday night? Awesome. The atmosphere in Bender was nothing short of electric, and the crowd did its best to keep St. Francis unsettled. KEEP IT UP, folks. The guys need us to provide the PL's best home court advantage. What a great start to the season for the AU fans.

The second half - Any time you outscore your opponent 35-16 in a half, that's a quality half for sure. We came out of the locker room ready to play and really locked down St. Francis with an intensity that was completely lacking in the first half. The shooting in the second half also improved: 12-25, 4-8, and 7-11.

THE BAD

Stephen Lumpkins - Lump was stumped last night. St. Francis's big man, Mislav Jukic, was a real beast last night, and he made Lump look bad most of the night. Coach Jones said Lumpkins was "overmatched" going one-on-one with Jukic, who finished 9-12 with 21 points and 7 rebounds. Lump's line? 3-6 for 9 points and 6 rebounds. Not a bad line, but we've come to expect more out of the big guy. There's a lot of other talented big men Lump will have to face this year. Hell, just in the PL he's got Gate's John Brandenburg, Mike Muscala from Bucknell, and Jared Mintz at Lafeyette. Hopefully he learned some lessons from facing Jukic that he can apply later this year.

 I'd add more to the Bad here, but there's really more Ugly than Bad. So let's move onto that.

THE UGLY

The first half for the Eagles - Jeff Jones said in the press conference that St. Francis just came out and punched us right in the mouth. Yep, that's pretty much how it went. They got out to a 9-0 lead before it seemed we even had our shoes laced up. Completely not ready to play. In the first half, we were 10-26 overall and 1-11 from behind the line. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

3 point shooting overall - 5-19 for the game isn't going to get it done. Surprisingly, only Danny Munoz had any kind of consistent touch from behind the arc. While the 3's we had were big, 14 missed shots from behind the arc is something we're definitely going to have to improve on.

I think that'll do it for me. Anything I missed, folks? A good start for the season for the Eagles, now we get to venture up to Albany and face the Scooby-Doos!

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

9 straight quarterfinal wins, 9 straight wins over Navy, 9 games away from an NCAA championship...coincidence? I think not. The GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Gooooood evening AUHoops fans! Well, this team has really pulled it together toward the end of the season and avoided three potentially unfortunate distinctions. We've never finished below 4th in the PL, we've never finished below .500 in the PL, and after tonight's victory against Navy, we have always made it into the semifinals of the PL tourney. It was a great win tonight, although a little more cardiac toward the end than it needed to be (more on that later). We played 38 solid minutes and then almost gave it up in the last two minutes. We'll be playing Lehigh at 8pm (what a ridiculous time) on Sunday. The EIWA wrestling championships are being held at Lehigh and won't be done until after 5pm. Because it's so late and on a Sunday, I'll be liveblogging rather than actually attending. Sorry about that. Anyway, let's get to it.

When your team plays a great first half and ends up avenging an earlier loss that's GOOD, when it almost gives the game away in the 2nd it's BAD/UGLY

Goooood evening AU Hoops fans. Hope you're all having a good night. I have to say I'm just catching my breath from that loss. I feel like I didn't breathe very well during tonight's second half. I guess you could say I was breathing about as well as our Eagles were playing. All's well that ends well, I guess, and since Cleveland Richard's desperation 3-point heave at the end of the game rimmed out, all is well. Still, I can't help but think that we should have never let it get as close as we did in the second half. Anyway, the night isn't getting any younger. Meet me after the jump for our normal post-game ritual.

An Apple A Day Keeps The Raiders Away

Will the toothpaste jokes ever end? Doubtful.

Wow...just wow. That was my reaction after watching the Bucknell Bison stampede all over us on Thursday. This is just not the same team I watched notch consecutive triumphs over Holy Cross, Navy, and Lafayette not too long ago. Worst of all is what Bucknell did to our beloved Impaler. After not being held to less than 14 points since he began playing in December (including against the likes of Penn State, Florida, and DePaul), Bucknell only allowed Vlad to score a single layup. While many other things went wrong in this game (and oh there were so very many), I'm willing to look past it all. No, I'm not crazy. Today at 2 PM we have an excellent chance to redeem ourselves when we take on the Colgate Raiders in Hamilton, NY. Find out why I'm not fearing for our feathers after the jump!

I'm so frustrated with this team. I can't take it anymore. I can, however, still write about GOOD, BAD, and UGLY things for perusal and critique

I don't even know what to say. If I spent six hours putting pen to paper I couldn't fully express the depth of my disappointment in the team's performance tonight or disdain for the officiating. I'm not going to take that six hours because I feel like the team already wasted my Thursday night with the game they just played. If I had to sum up how this game went from the AU perspective, I would say it was like this (Photo courtesy of The Eagle):



It was really that terrible. If you haven't read the tweets from tonight, I encourage you to do so. Additionally, here's the box score from tonight in case you need some material to look at forlornly while you cry yourself to sleep in the fetal position tonight. Here's the post-game video and recap also.

When your team beats the (current) 1st place team and climbs to 2nd place it makes you happy to write about the game's GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Goooooooooood afternoon AU hoops fans! Hope you all had a chance to watch our AU Eagles declaw the Laugh-ayette Kittycats! There were a few ties and lead changes in this game, but to be honest we had the game in hand for a majority of the time, and it was really a matter of "Are we going to blow this?" more than "Are they going to come back?" The answer to both questions, of course, is no! This win, our third straight, means we will finish this weekend no lower than tied for second place. What a great day to be an AU Eagles fan. I hope you're all enjoying the snow and being careful and all that. Do yourself a favor, don't go outside, stay right here and join me as I dish out the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY!

There wasn't a whole lot of GOOD last night, but there were heaping helpings of BAD and UGLY

Gooooood afternoon AU Hoops fans. Hope everyone out there is having a good day and enjoying the Ravens beating the snot out of the Patriots. Kind of like how the Lehigh Hill Pigeons beat our beloved AU Eagles last night. The first half of that game was probably one of the worst that I've ever seen out of AU basketball. There's a little bit of everything today, so let's get down to it.

We Played the Penn State Nittany Lions, Some GOOD, BAD, and UGLY Things Occurred. Supply Your Own Pith

Goooooooood evening AU fans! Well, no surprises here my friends, the Penn State Nittany Lions (by the way, what in the name of all that makes Jeff Jones angry is a Nittany Lion?) handed our AU Eagles their 10th loss of the season. Well, I shouldn't say no surprises. I was a little surprised that we were only down by 6 at the half. Let me tell you what I wasn't surprised by. I wasn't in the least surprised by the 15-1 run that PSU started the second half with. I was going to save this for Thursday's Open Letter to Jeff Jones, but I feel it can't wait, so let me give you a little sneak peak.

"Dear Jeff Jones,

I'm not sure exactly what you do or say to our Eagles at halftime that makes them come out EVERY SINGLE GAME sluggish and awful at the beginning of the second half, but for the love of all that makes you angry and profane, please stop doing it. Make them sit on the bench for halftime or something. Anything to keep them focused on the game, which is apparently the antithesis of whatever is going on in the locker room at halftime.

Love and kisses,
Barechested Bender Bill"

Oh, and JJ? Here's your dose of the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY for the Penn State game.

As much GOOD as there was in the DePaul win, there's as much BAD and UGLY in the UMBC loss

Gooood evening AU fans. I'm not feeling very well (I didn't even make it to the game today), so this will be a pretty perfunctory edition of good, bad, and ugly. Sorry about that. In any event.

When you lose by 27 to your city's powerhouse team but it's not quite as bad as you thought it would be, there's GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Gooooooood evening AU hoops fans! Well, our fateful road swing has begun, and it has begun just as we expected, with a loss, 73-46 to Georgetown at the Verizon Center. To read the recap, go here, and to find the box score, go here. Honestly, the game wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it would be. For the firat 8 mminutes or so we hung with the Hoyas pretty closely. We even had a lead! Don't believe me? Here's proof, in two forms!

First, from contributor Vidulicious (5-4):




And then from our own Josh (7-6):


If only the game had ended after the first seven minutes, we would've had the upset of the year! Alas, we had to play the remaining 33 minutes. It was filled with the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY. Stick with us and see what those elements were!

When you lose to a team you flat-out should've beaten, I can search for GOOD but can find plenty of BAD and UGLY

Ugh. Good evening AUHoops.com fans! Thanks to all of you who came out and participated in our liveblog today. For those of you haven't heard. We lost. Again. For the seventh time in a row. Unlike the past couple of losses, this is a game we should've won, and, well, we didn't. Let me give a disclaimer here, I'm going to write up this Good, Bad, and Ugly based on the box score, the recaps I read, and the comments in the liveblog. If I don't get it entirely correct, I apologize in advance, but I think I'll probably do a pretty good job. (Good enough for government work, as they say). Here's the recap and box score.

Anyway, let's get on with it, painful as it may be.

When you come back from a 14-1 deficit to make a game of it but still lose, you could say there's elements of GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Goooooood evening AUHoops.com followers, fans, and general hangers-on. Hope you all had a good night and a safe day of traveling for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Me? Oh, no, my traveling is not completed. Josh and I were both in Bender Arena tonight. Why? Because we're slaves to the blogosphere, that's why. I hope you appreciate the personal sacrifices we make for you. Meh, actually, it's okay if you don't, I'm going to go to the games and report on them anyway.

So, tonight. I predicted 84-70. Per usual, I showed that I am not good at things. The final score was Manhattan (Jaspers, what in the Great Wall of Lumpkins is a jasper? Is it like Casper the friendly ghost's mid-major basketball team cousin?) 69, AU 62. I was actually pretty pleased with our performance overall. What's that you say? You mean if I'm so pleased then why don't I shut up and just write a "Good" column instead of a "Good, Bad, and Ugly" column? Because this isn't rec soccer, there are winners and losers (even though tonight we're all losers, losers of six straight actually). You don't just get a trophy that says, "Good job." You get (maybe, if you're lucky) a designation as Good, Bad, or Ugly from a blogger with less skill in his whole body than Lumpkins has in his left knee.

So join me on this magical trip to Good, Bad, and Ugly land. It'll be an extra-long edition because I'm feeling generous! Yippee!

When you surpass 5,000 hits but the team you cover goes 0-5, it's GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Goooooood evening AU Hoops fans. We are 0-5. Zero wins, five losses. Boy oh boy. We knew it was going to be a rebuilding year, but I don't think anyone thought it would be quite like this. The recap to the game is here, and the box score is here. In any event, there is definitely some good, bad, and ugly tonight. It's hard to keep being creative to these introductions. It's also hard to keep losing, and I do feel bad for the team. Still, away we go

Third Time's The Charm

It's preview time again here at AU Basketball Central, as our Eagles fly onto the hardwood of Bender Arena yet again tomorrow (Saturday) at noon. For those of you who stopped by last time to check out Bill's Mt. St. Mary's preview, I apologize for the Sylvester Stallone joke. I clearly would not condone such a reference in one of my own previews, unless it involved some sort of incredible Rocky/Rambo hybrid meant to symbolize Stephen Lumpkins' intimidating game-face. But I digress...

So here we are, three games into a five game homestand. The first two didn't go quite as planned, but there's a spring of endless optimism here at AU Basketball Central, and we drink from it every night just to stay sane. So as they say, third time's the charm! Let's see what we're up against tomorrow after the jump.

The....Florida Atlantic University Owls! Owls, you say? Owls?! Unless our mascot suddenly becomes the field mouse, I don't see these owls having any sort of real advantage tomorrow. Plus, owls are pretty far down on the "badass bird" scale, so we win there too. Could this mean we'll record our first win of the season? Why, I believe it could!

When a freshman birthday boy plays his heart out but the team still loses, there's a little bit of GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

Gooooood evening AU fans. Josh wanted me to title this entry, "Again." I really thought about titling it "Again!?" But ultimately, you got what you're seeing. Fresh from Bender Arena, another evening, another loss. This is one, quite frankly, that I thought we would drop. This is what I wrote on August 10:

"Nov. 18 (Wed) - 7:30p - Mt. St. Mary's (@AU) - As mentioned above, the Mount really kicked in our teeth last year in our only home loss. The Eagles will really have to dig in deep if they want to reverse their fortunes this year, especially since Mt. St. Mary's returns its top four scorers from a year ago. Not looking forward to this game, folks. I'll bring the peroxide because there's a good chance our guys are going to get beat up."

Woo, I'm not awful at predicting things. We lost the game 73-62, and my prediction before the game on Twitter was that if we could keep it to under 10 points in a loss it'd be a moral win. I'll take 11 points, though, because I'm not good at math. In any event, plenty to talk about tonight, so let's get to the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY...

Will Jeff Jones tone down the profanity? Should the Blue Crew be the Red Crew? Is it Speculation Tuesday? Only one question can be answered YES

Why do I speculate on Tuesdays? It could be because I first had the idea to do a weekly post full of speculations on a Tuesday, or it could be because our site traffic needs a boost on Tuesday. But why hasn't there been a Speculation Tuesday entry since the first one like three weeks ago? It could be because I'm forgetful or easily distracted by shiny objects. Or it could be because the blue paint I use on myself isn't quite as non-toxic as it says it is on the label.

In any event, I'll be trying to make this a more regular feature on the site. Have things you want me to speculate about? Send them to auhoopsblog@gmail.com! I'll do my best to provide you some kind of answer, but of course it would just be pure speculation. Just like the rest of these...

When I'm Particularly Annoyed About a Loss, It Is GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

No time for niceties tonight. Here's the long and the short of it: we blew the game in the second half again. For those of you who weren't there or haven't heard, we lost to the Albany Great Danes tonight 51-50. Just like at St. Francis, the wheels came off the whole operation in the second half, and we blew a halftime lead. At this point I've got to think that conditioning is playing a part in this; we're just gassed by about the 10 minute mark in the second half. Some of that is that we've got a young team with players whose bodies don't have the benefit of 2-3 years with collegiate trainers and training regimens.

Before I get into this, nice to see play out of Mike Bersch tonight. The good news is, he got his first collegiate bucket. The bad news is, he went 0-3 from behind the arc.

Ugh what a bitter loss. Still incredulous that we lost this game. Still, there were some highlights, which brings me to...